Archive for August, 2010

My garden is insane. I’m going to have to start making fresh tomato sauce because I’m up to my eyeballs in tomatoes. My cucumbers are STILL producing, along with my green beans (and I have 15 bags of green beans frozen already!). Apparently I’m pretty good at this whole growing-your-own-food-thing.

Smoothies

It took me awhile to get my groove with smoothies-for-breakfast, but once I removed the protein powder and replaced it with greek yogurt, I was well on my way. Smoothie, along with some cereal (Oatmeal Squares are my favorite for this purpose) for crunch and substance make a delicious and easily portable breakfast for me on workdays. Although, admittedly, I skip the spinach on days I have early meetings, etc — the green smoothies draw a little too much attention. 🙂

My two favorite smoothies at the moment:

1. Peach/banana smoothie

– 1 fresh, ripe peach (could use frozen)

– 1/2 – 1 banana, ripe (could use frozen)

– 5 ice cubes

– 1 container peach flavored Chobani yogurt

– splash of milk

– 2 handfuls of baby spinach (optional)

Blend it all up and transfer to a bottle for transport

2. Orange/Pinapple/Banana smoothie

– 1/2 cup-ish frozen pineapple chunks

– 1/2 fresh navel orange, peeled

– 1 container pineapple Chobani yogurt

– 5 ice cubes

– splash of milk

– 2 handfuls baby spinach (optional)

Blend it all up and transfer to a bottle for transport

Working It Out

This is the plan I’m currently following…I’ve done it for 2 weeks already, and will continue for another 2 weeks. Then, a “fun” week — and then — a week’s rest/vacation. Woohoo!

Enter, Holly Doggle. The weather has been fantastic lately (even a preview of fall this week!!! So excited!!!) so I’ve been spending more time outside with her, walking her, playing with her, getting her together with the neighborhood dogs….all the things most people do with their children. LOL

Prepping for Babies

Okay, that might be a bit premature. But I did get the clear from my doctor for hubs and I to try whenever I’m ready, and I did finally, agonizingly, select a prenatal vitamin. I went with this one, which I bought at Target:

It contains no iron, but the iron rips my stomach apart, AND my iron levels are really good right now. If I would get pregnant and need iron, I’d start it then. But there’s no reason now. Additionally,these gummies contain DHA. And, they taste delicious. 🙂

My doctor and I actually discussed that based on my diet, I probably didn’t need an all-encompassing prenatal multi. She told me I’d be fine just taking the folic acid supplement. But, I decided I wanted to take the DHA supplement, too, and the gummies were a better price selection than folic acid and DHA supplements bought individually. We’ll see how they work out.

Also in line with prepping for babies, hubs and I are working on refinancing our home. It’ll cut $50,000 off the life of the loan. That’s huge!!! But it also means paperwork, and appraisers, and all that schtuff that takes time in my evening.

And finally, regarding babies, we’ve been hardcore shopping for a new vehicle. My 2006 Cobalt SS coupe isn’t exactly a family car, so we’re actively seeking a new Rav-4 or Escape…leaning towards the Rav-4, and now we just need to decide if we look for a deal on a 2010, or, go with a brand new 2011. We will see!

I went back to Pittsburgh to visit my fam and attend a family reunion. It was great to see everyone, but what’s even better is I convinced them to change it to Saturday afternoon (instead of Sunday afternoon) next year, to accomodate my travel (since I’m the only one who does travel!). Woot! I know it sounds kind of selfish, but there really was no reason we were doing it Sunday. It certainly didn’t hurt to ask if we could change it!

Came back late late late from seeing the fam, and threw myself right into the work week — and it was a hellacious work week. Weeks like that, I understand why people want to blog and write for a living. Crimeny.

I did manage to work out through hellacious-week-2010, but my heart really wasn’t in it, and even I realized I was just going through the motions

I didn’t sleep well, and found every evening to be jam packed with work, obligations, dog walking, cooking, and harvesting from my garden. Most nights I didn’t sit down until 10pm, thus no blogging. I really struggle with balancing out my day. That whole 8-hour work day with only a measly 1/2 hour lunch really cramps my style 😉

So I’m back – kind of. 🙂 I’ll post when I can, but life is just….busier…in the summer. And I won’t be making my pennies off this blog anytime soon, so penny-making comes first 🙂